Clear of Cloud

Blue Sky Blues

I'm sitting in my home office looking at clear skies and cursing my procrastination gene. The weather has now been dry for a week and the days are noticeably longer. Ground that seemed like it would never be anything other than a semi-solid ooze is now reassuringly firm underfoot. And I am without an aeroplane. For any number of useless reasons I've put off getting her on the Irish register and permitted. Now I am desperately praying that this perfect flying weather, that now looks like lasting another weeek, is not 2013's full allocation of flyable weather.

I've been sanding back the old "G" registration marks on the Luscmbe to make way for here new "vintage" Irish registration. It's tedious work, really tedious but I want her to look just right. I want to be able look the pal who restored here straight in the eye the next time he sees her.

Doing the work has been made a lot easier now that she's hangared just a mile from the house. It would of course be lovely if we had power in the hangar so that I could work into the evening but I guess we can't have everything. It's a really small moan. I mean how many of us get to live this close to our aeroplanes, have a near perfect 600m grass strip, clear approachs and a hanagar full of vintage aeroplanes and flyers that love them.

I may have the blue-sky-blues at the moment but they'll pass and the flying will be fantastic.

Wooh, wooh, wooh. My it's dusty in here.

Fortunately my log book and lovely Luscombe aren't as (quite as) dusty as this blog. All need a good spruce up though and so hopefully there'll be more here so. I miss the flying, I miss the Luscombe and I miss the writing.

Talk to you again soon.

The Past at Two Thousand Feet

Drawing melancholy circles above my old school, my little Luscombe and I learned lessons about each other that both of us wished we learned earlier. Bushi realised that clumsy-footed me is actually capable of co-ordinated turns and I learned that two thousand feet is worth twenty years of perspective.

The Inconvience of Wisdom

Various forces of virtue and wickedness have conspired to keep me grounded for some time now. In the dark corner; inappropriate weather at appropriate times and the usual spectre of empty pockets. In the the corner of righteousness, an engineering team with wisdom far more persuasive than my impatience to fly.

Isn't It Funny?

I was watching the thoroughly engaging Stephen Fry and his new series Last Chance to See  earlier this week. It's a series where he and naturalist Mark Carwardine go in search of endangered species - following in the path of Carwadine and Douglas Adams's similar expedition from 20 years earlier. It's well worth watching.

 

Finding my Feet

Slowly, I'm beginning to find my feet and more importantly I'm actually learning to use them in the Luscombe. Dispite the moans lately about all sorts, I've done a nice amount of flying. I've done about 5 hours in two weeks. It hasn't been quality hours of circuit bashing, more enjoying the freedom that having my own aeroplane has brought me.

A Punitive Paperwork Penalty.

It's been an expensive few months for me but it really boiled down to two items; a new battery and a new SEP rating. The battery issue was pretty easy to resolve and certainly not as costly as the new piece of paper.

How did I manage to lose the SEP. Paperwork, pure and simple. I had 12 hours logged in the last 12 months of the SEP validity period and I also had completed and hour with an instructor - what I didn't do was submit those details to the IAA by the date of expiry on my SEP rating.

That oversight on my part required a flight test to get my rating back. The cost: €430 plus 50 minutes of aircraft rental. That's money that should have been spent flying my Luscombe, keeping my skills sharp which would do a lot more for aviation safety. Now don't get me wrong, the rules are rules, so I don't expect an exemption. However, the rule is pointlessly punitive. If I hadn't met the currency and instructional requirements I could see some merit in an examination of my skills but I had met those requirements . What I hadn't done was complied with a bureaucratic procedure.

A €430 flight test is an excessive penalty for not posting a form to Aviation House.

Beaten by the Battery

It looks like HI needs a new battery.  I was back out at the airfield yesterday to do a couple of touch and goes, maybe make use of the lovely crisp day to go for a bimble out west.  I pulled HI out of the hangar and up to the bowser - why does the bowser have to be up a hill - to top up the tanks. Unfortunately when I finally got around to starting her  - nothing. Well, not nothing but certainly not enough to start a cold O-200.

It looks like my engineering guru was right, charging wasn't enough. 

If you're interested, I found this useful info on www.batterystuff.com  and there's plenty more there:

" Battery life and performance - Average battery life has become shorter as energy requirements have increased. Two phrases I hear most often are "my battery won't take a charge, and my battery won't hold a charge". Only 30% of batteries sold today reach the 48-month mark. In fact 80% of all battery failure is related to sulfation build-up. This build up occurs when the sulfur molecules in the electrolyte (battery acid) become so deeply discharged that they begin to coat the battery's lead plates. Before long the plates become so coated that the battery dies. The causes of sulfation are numerous. Let me list some for you.

• Batteries sit too long between charges. As little as 24 hours in hot weather and several days in cooler weather.
• Battery is stored without some type of energy input.
• "Deep cycling" an engine starting battery. Remember these batteries can't stand deep discharge.
• Undercharging of a battery to only 90% of capacity will allow sulfation of the battery using the 10% of battery chemistry not reactivated by the incompleted charging cycle.
• ...
• Low electrolyte level - battery plates exposed to air will immediately sulfate.
• Incorrect charging levels and settings. Most cheap battery chargers can do more harm than good. See the section on battery charging.
• Cold weather is also hard on the battery. The chemistry does not make the same amount of energy as a warm battery. A deeply discharged battery can freeze solid in sub zero weather."

Of course if that's not interesting, here's a pretty picture instead: 
 

My Batteries Are Charging

It took some while to troubleshoot why the battery wasn't charging but the the dodgy mains outlet was identified as the culprit and now HI's battery in charging and I'm working on some photos from a friend's wedding.

It's freezing in this hangar. Dubilin Airport is reporting temperature as zero degrees but it's the most comfortable I've been while losing sensation in my toes. Outside the hangar, my little Trangia stove flickering away safely, making a warming cup of tea, watching the lights of arrivals and departures from Dublin airport against a clear sky. Elbow singing in the background

"Are we coming across clear?
Are we coming across fine?
Are we having the time of our lives?
...
One little room and the biggest of plans.
The days were shaping up,
Frosty and bright.
Perfect weather to fly.

Perfect weather to fly."

I'm back inside now with my tea cooling rapidly and I notice, in the frosty fluorescent haze of the hangar, that I'm not alone with my flying machine. I'm sure it's way past his bed time but a robin has flitted up, checking up on this earth-bound flyer, perched on chair, plumped out in his winter coat, tap, tap, tapping away on his keyboard.

On a frosty clear night, in a countryside hangar, tending to a vintage aeroplane with robin and a mug of lukewarm tea for company: such is contentment.

This Evening's Task

... is to try and get this fellow charged! Brrr is it cold in this hangar